Welcome to Reading Revisited, a place for friends to enjoy some good old-fashioned book chat while revisiting the truth, beauty, and goodness we’ve found in our favorite books.
1) I need to get into Dickens. Where would you recommend starting?
2) I also have never been a huge American lit fan, but as an adult am coming to appreciate it much much more. Having discovered authors like Willa Cather, Eudora Welty, and Wendell Berry has helped. I also think being an adult/parent/want to be homesteader has made certain elements of American literature more relevant to me
3) Middlemarch is incredible and has improved with every read for me. There’s no other book like it. Also I think the marriage point is interesting especially considering that Austen also rarely portrays happy/healthy marriages. Any good romantic relationships the happily ever after/successful marriage is assumed rather than seen. And yet Austen doesn’t come in for the criticism of Middlemarch in not portraying marriage as potentially redemptive/a hopeful endeavor
4) The reads of requirement idea is fantastic
5) Another reason Newman should be the patron saint of novelists is because he is a mentioned/side character in a novel! Trollope’s Barchester Towers mentions Newman as a mentor of the fictional character, Dr. Arabin, who became high church under Newman’s influence but did not follow him across the Tiber, though he came close. Newman actually really enjoyed Trollope’s novels and the two briefly corresponded to share their mutual admiration which is so neat
1. I will let Hannah answer (but Our Mutual Friend was lovely! Also Hard Times is a hilarious fairy tale criticism of modern education)
2. I need to read Eudora Welty and I'd like to read more Cather (and Berry obviously)
3. I really want to have a whole podcast on Middlemarch if you want to join in on that fun! We read it before starting the podcast and it received a lot of pushback so I'd love to get some Middlemarch lovers apologizing (in the true sense of the word) for it!
4. We are having that podcast record this week and I can't wait!
5. Hannah and I just read the first Barchester Towers novel a few months ago with Close Reads but we didn't keep going....this seems like good enticement!
Eudora Welty is really interesting and atmospheric and Cather is becoming a favorite of mine very quickly. And we all need more Wendell Berry in our lives. I’d love to join in on that-I’m happy to apologize for it. Looking forward to listening! And the subsequent books are definitely the better ones. I’ve read the first four and 2/3 are my favorites so far. The plotting is more dramatic and Trollope’s humor is more prominent.
I don't know if I have already said it on the podcast multiple times, but I'm related to Willa Cather so I need to love her more and somehow inherit her literary estate... #lifegoals.
You are making a good argument to read more Trollope!
1. Honestly, as much as I adore Bleak House, I think Little Dorrit or Our Mutual Friend might be a great way in. David Copperfield is also excellent, but much differently paced than those two. A Tale of Two Cities is also AMAZING, but such a departure from his normal style (while keeping as much of the Dickensian charm as is possible in a historical novel like this). I love Hard Times, too, and am probably due for a re-read, but I don't think it's the best way in as I think it's better read once you have a handle on his style and humor.
2. I feel the same way. I read both Berry and Welty 5 or 6 years ago and was not interested in the least, now I'm such a Berry fangirl and need to revisit Welty!
3. Yes to all of this. Ugh now I want to stop everything and pick up Middlemarch again.
4. That list keeps getting longer and longer in my house.
5. YES! Okay this motivates me to finish the series, I found The Warden good, not great, but now I want to pick up the next one.
Also, (maybe I said this in the podcast...forgive me if I'm repeating myself), I like to joke that Dickens made me Catholic, because it was in reading Bleak House that I first learned about John Henry Newman. He's not mentioned by name, but Dickens goes on one of his famous tirades about the Oxford Movement. I remember google searching that, learning about Newman, and the rest is history <3
And then it actually turned out that Nate (now husband, then fiancé) was also taking a class on John Henry Newman for his M.Div program at Duke, so Newman ended up being hugely influential for both of us in our conversion!
5. We loved the beginning and then got bored...right? We thought he was really funny!
I'm not sure you did mention that in the podcast (I'm so sorry if I just forgot...I promise I listen!)...but I think this could be a podcast: Literature to Catholicism! Obviously Brideshead, but we could have a fun deep dive!
That’s how I feel listening to you guys-glad the sentiment is mutual!
1. Thanks for the advice/recommendations. That’s all really helpful to know/be aware of.
2. The Optimist’s Daughter is a good starting point for Welty, or just her short stories. The Robber Bridegroom is fun but super super weird. One of the strangest things I’ve ever read.
3. The decision of what to reread at any given time is so hard-always being reminded of what I love.
4. Haha same
5. Like I said to Kelsie, they get better as they go on for sure.
That’s such a neat conversion story. I love when the saints bring people in like that. Newman also has a fun connection to Tolkien-the priest who raised Tolkien after his parents died was a member of the Oratory Newman founded, and of course that priest profoundly influenced the faith handed in by his Mother. So another reason Newman should be the patron saint of novelists perhaps.
So many things to comment on.
1) I need to get into Dickens. Where would you recommend starting?
2) I also have never been a huge American lit fan, but as an adult am coming to appreciate it much much more. Having discovered authors like Willa Cather, Eudora Welty, and Wendell Berry has helped. I also think being an adult/parent/want to be homesteader has made certain elements of American literature more relevant to me
3) Middlemarch is incredible and has improved with every read for me. There’s no other book like it. Also I think the marriage point is interesting especially considering that Austen also rarely portrays happy/healthy marriages. Any good romantic relationships the happily ever after/successful marriage is assumed rather than seen. And yet Austen doesn’t come in for the criticism of Middlemarch in not portraying marriage as potentially redemptive/a hopeful endeavor
4) The reads of requirement idea is fantastic
5) Another reason Newman should be the patron saint of novelists is because he is a mentioned/side character in a novel! Trollope’s Barchester Towers mentions Newman as a mentor of the fictional character, Dr. Arabin, who became high church under Newman’s influence but did not follow him across the Tiber, though he came close. Newman actually really enjoyed Trollope’s novels and the two briefly corresponded to share their mutual admiration which is so neat
1. I will let Hannah answer (but Our Mutual Friend was lovely! Also Hard Times is a hilarious fairy tale criticism of modern education)
2. I need to read Eudora Welty and I'd like to read more Cather (and Berry obviously)
3. I really want to have a whole podcast on Middlemarch if you want to join in on that fun! We read it before starting the podcast and it received a lot of pushback so I'd love to get some Middlemarch lovers apologizing (in the true sense of the word) for it!
4. We are having that podcast record this week and I can't wait!
5. Hannah and I just read the first Barchester Towers novel a few months ago with Close Reads but we didn't keep going....this seems like good enticement!
Eudora Welty is really interesting and atmospheric and Cather is becoming a favorite of mine very quickly. And we all need more Wendell Berry in our lives. I’d love to join in on that-I’m happy to apologize for it. Looking forward to listening! And the subsequent books are definitely the better ones. I’ve read the first four and 2/3 are my favorites so far. The plotting is more dramatic and Trollope’s humor is more prominent.
I don't know if I have already said it on the podcast multiple times, but I'm related to Willa Cather so I need to love her more and somehow inherit her literary estate... #lifegoals.
You are making a good argument to read more Trollope!
Can't wait for Wendell Berry!
Ooooh you're so our people, Elise! :)
1. Honestly, as much as I adore Bleak House, I think Little Dorrit or Our Mutual Friend might be a great way in. David Copperfield is also excellent, but much differently paced than those two. A Tale of Two Cities is also AMAZING, but such a departure from his normal style (while keeping as much of the Dickensian charm as is possible in a historical novel like this). I love Hard Times, too, and am probably due for a re-read, but I don't think it's the best way in as I think it's better read once you have a handle on his style and humor.
2. I feel the same way. I read both Berry and Welty 5 or 6 years ago and was not interested in the least, now I'm such a Berry fangirl and need to revisit Welty!
3. Yes to all of this. Ugh now I want to stop everything and pick up Middlemarch again.
4. That list keeps getting longer and longer in my house.
5. YES! Okay this motivates me to finish the series, I found The Warden good, not great, but now I want to pick up the next one.
Also, (maybe I said this in the podcast...forgive me if I'm repeating myself), I like to joke that Dickens made me Catholic, because it was in reading Bleak House that I first learned about John Henry Newman. He's not mentioned by name, but Dickens goes on one of his famous tirades about the Oxford Movement. I remember google searching that, learning about Newman, and the rest is history <3
And then it actually turned out that Nate (now husband, then fiancé) was also taking a class on John Henry Newman for his M.Div program at Duke, so Newman ended up being hugely influential for both of us in our conversion!
3. Do it!!!!
5. We loved the beginning and then got bored...right? We thought he was really funny!
I'm not sure you did mention that in the podcast (I'm so sorry if I just forgot...I promise I listen!)...but I think this could be a podcast: Literature to Catholicism! Obviously Brideshead, but we could have a fun deep dive!
Also....yes Elise is so our people!
Some books off the top of my head for that: The Power and the Glory, Death Comes for the Archbishop, obviously LOTR, Dracula
That would be such a neat episode!
That’s how I feel listening to you guys-glad the sentiment is mutual!
1. Thanks for the advice/recommendations. That’s all really helpful to know/be aware of.
2. The Optimist’s Daughter is a good starting point for Welty, or just her short stories. The Robber Bridegroom is fun but super super weird. One of the strangest things I’ve ever read.
3. The decision of what to reread at any given time is so hard-always being reminded of what I love.
4. Haha same
5. Like I said to Kelsie, they get better as they go on for sure.
That’s such a neat conversion story. I love when the saints bring people in like that. Newman also has a fun connection to Tolkien-the priest who raised Tolkien after his parents died was a member of the Oratory Newman founded, and of course that priest profoundly influenced the faith handed in by his Mother. So another reason Newman should be the patron saint of novelists perhaps.
Alright, I'm convinced, Newman should be the patron saint of novelists for sure!