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Hearts and Flowers

Valentine’s Day is all but guaranteed to inspire some kind of case of the feels. Some of us love the hearts, flowers, and the unbridled romance of it. Some of us can’t stand it and flee like a vampire exposed to light. Some of us…

Scandalous Liaisons: Narratives about One Class for the Instruction of Others

Sex scandals are rarely just about sex. From the Mary Anne Clarke affair of 1809 to the recent trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, the real issue is power. What are the elite really doing? How do they abuse their position and wealth at the…

The Law and the Lady: A Book Discussion

The Law and the Lady is a much neglected Victorian legal gothic novel. Written by one of Charles Dickens's closest friends, Wilkie Collins, the novel is a forerunner of today's popular detective and legal thriller genres. In fact,…

Reading A Room of One’s Own: Parts 5&6

In the concluding chapters of A Room of One’s Own, Woolf returns her narrator, Mary, to the present. Woolf then, finally, lends her own voice to the piece.

Reading A Room of One’s Own: Parts 3&4

Returning to A Room of One’s Own, we find ourselves in the home—the room—of Woolf’s narrator, Mary. Having made her observations out in the world, she returns here to tease out and develop her thoughts. Disappointed with her trip to…

Reading A Room of One’s Own: Parts 1&2

Everyone wants to have read Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. Nowhere near as many have read it. I got to it (finally) in 2021. Read along with me, it’s past time.

Virginia Woolf in the Modern Art Museum: Marginalia of One’s Own

I recently had a chance to spend a morning at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm’s museum of modern art. Though I admit to a preference for Medieval and Renaissance art, Stockholm seems to bring out the modernist in me, and I wanted to…

Two Christmas Stories by Dickens: A Discussion

Amy Willis and Sarah Skwire recently took a little time out of all our behind the scene work at Liberty Fund's websites to have a lively and wide-ranging discussion about two Christmas stories by Charles Dickens. We hope you enjoy…

Viva Dante 700: Che può insegnarci il Sommo Poeta sul lavoro, l'amore, l'arte e la vita: Inferno, Canto VI, Parte 2: Fino a che punto si estendono i nostri doveri civici?

Una serie di Reading Room su La Divina Commedia
Proseguendo attraverso il terzo girone dell'Inferno, passiamo con Dante e Virgilio attraverso innumerevoli ombre delle anime dei morti che giacciono nelle pozzanghere sporche,…

Dante at 700: What the Supreme Poet can teach us about work, love, art, and life: Inferno, Canto VI, Part 2: How Far Do Our Civic Duties Extend?

A Reading Room series on the Divine Comedy
Continuing through the third circle of Hell, we pass with Dante and Virgil through countless shades of the souls of the dead that are lying in the filthy puddles, apparently able to tread…

Viva Dante 700: Che può insegnarci il Sommo Poeta sul lavoro, l'amore, l'arte e la vita: Inferno, Canto VI: Perché la gola è un peccato?

Una serie di Reading Room su La Divina Commedia
Siamo ora nel terzo girone dell'Inferno con Dante. Ovunque guardi vede nuovi tormenti. Sta piovendo, una pioggia fredda, pesante, senza fine, che si rinnova sempre in forza e…

Jane Austen and the Perks of Imperfection

After Jane Austen died, her brother Henry penned a "Biographical Notice of the Author" verging on hagiography. The restrained author he depicts--"as she never deserved disapprobation . . . she never met reproof"--evokes a lady who…

Dante at 700: What the Supreme Poet can teach us about work, love, art, and life: Inferno, Canto VI: Why is Gluttony a Sin?

A Reading Room SeriesWe are now in the third circle of Hell with Dante. Everywhere he looks he sees new torments. It is raining—a cold, heavy, non-ending rain, ever-renewing in strength and accursedness. Huge pellets of hail and…

Viva Dante 700: Che può insegnarci il Sommo Poeta sul lavoro, l'amore, l'arte e la vita:Inferno, Canto IV, Parte 2: Sii discernente nella tua lettura

Una serie di Reading Room su La Divina Commedia
Dante distingue tre singole ombre di <<malfattore carnale>> che vengono verso di lui, lamentandosi e trasportati insieme all'inesorabile uragano. <<Maestro>>,…

The Education of Coriolanus Snow

Frankenstein's monster evokes little wonder in the fall when he lurches across our television screens or stands on our front porches demanding candy. We expect Mary Shelley's creature around Halloween. What is startling is to find…

Dante at 700: What the Supreme Poet can teach us about work, love, art, and life: Inferno Canto V Part 2: Be Discerning in Your Reading

A Reading Room series on The Divine Comedy
Dante makes out three individual “carnal malefactor” shades coming toward him, lamenting and being born along by the relentless hurricane. “Master,” he asks Virgil. “Who are these people,…

    1. Lawrence and Tabloids of Compressed Liberty

“Knowledge is, of course, liberty,” said Mattheson.“In compressed tabloids,” said Birkin, looking at the dry, stiff little body of the Baronet. Immediately Gudrun saw the famous sociologist as a flat bottle, containing tabloids of…

Viva Dante 700: Che può insegnarci il Sommo Poeta sul lavoro, l'amore, l'arte e la vita : Inferno, Canto IV: Sii discernimento nell'amore

Una serie di Reading Room su La Divina Commedia
Dante e Virgilio lasciano il Limbo e si fanno strada nel secondo girone dell'Inferno. Questo cerchio è di dimensioni più piccole del primo (l'Inferno di Dante ha la forma di un cono…

Dante at 700: What the Supreme Poet can teach us about work, love, art, and life : Inferno, Canto V: Be Discerning in Love

A Reading Room series on The Divine Comedy
Dante and Virgil leave Limbo and make their way into the second circle of Hell. This circle is smaller in size than the first (Dante’s Hell is shaped like an upside-down cone, so that…

Viva Dante 700: Che può insegnarci il Sommo Poeta sul lavoro, l'amore, l'arte e la vita: : Inferno, Canto IV, Parte 2: Il posto dell'intelletto nella vita di fede

Una serie di Reading Room su La Divina Commedia
Dante e Virgilio proseguono attraverso una foresta, una foresta di <<fantasmi folti>>. Non molto lontano in questa foresta Dante vede un fuoco divampare nell'oscurità.…

Dante at 700: What the Supreme Poet can teach us about work, love, art, and life: Inferno, Canto IV, Part 2

A Reading Room seriesDante and Virgil continue onwards through a forest—a forest of “thick-crowded ghosts.” Not very far into this forest Dante sees a fire blazing in the darkness. Even though they are still somewhat distant from…

Viva Dante 700: Che può insegnarci il Sommo Poeta sul lavoro, l'amore, l'arte e la vita: lInferno, Canto IV: Scappando dal limbo

Una serie di Reading Room su La Divina Commedia
Dante viene svegliato da un forte tuono. Si alza in piedi, si guarda intorno e cerca di capire dove si trova. È in piedi sul bordo di una valle profonda, buia e nebbiosa che…

Dante at 700: What the Supreme Poet can teach us about work, love, art, and life : Inferno, Canto IV: Escaping Limbo

A Reading Room series on The Divine Comedy
Dante is awoken by a loud clap of thunder. He gets up to his feet, looks around, and tries to comprehend where he is. He is standing on the edge of a deep, dark, misty valley reverberating…

Viva Dante 700: Che può insegnarci il Sommo Poeta sul lavoro, l'amore, l'arte e la vita: Inferno, Canto III, Parte 2: La fallacia della neutralità

Una serie di Reading Room su La Divina Commedia
Mentre Dante e Virgilio entrano nell'anticamera dell'Inferno, Virgilio dice a Dante che tutto il lamento agonizzante che sente sono le voci di coloro che <<visser sanza ‘…

Dante at 700: What the Supreme Poet can teach us about work, love, art, and life: Inferno, Canto III, Part 2: The Fallacy of Neutrality e:

A Reading Room series on The Divine Comedy
As Dante and Virgil enter the antechamber of Hell, Virgil tells Dante that all the agonized wailing he’s hearing are the voices of those who “lived without infamy or praise”—those who…