In the latest installment of “A Life Lived in Literature,” I recount the origins of “Better Living through Beowulf.”
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Tag Archives: Daniel Defoe
“Better Living” Emerged from a Midnight Epiphany
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Alexander Pope, Benjamin Franklin, blogging, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Geoffrey Chaucer, Great Gatsby, Jane Austen, Poor Richard’s Almanack, Pride and Prejudice, Rape of the Lock, Robinson Crusoe, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Wife of Bath Comments closed
Anti-Vaxxers Ignore the Past
Anti-vaxxers should read 19th century novels, which describe high mortality rates
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "University Hospital Boston", anti-vaxxers, Birds' Christmas Carol, Bleak House, Charlotte Bronte, Childbirth, Cholera, Jane Eyre, Journal of the Plague Year, Kate Douglas Wiggin, Mary Oliver, Nemesis, Oliver Twist, Philip Roth, plague, Polio, Robert Kennedy Jr., Scarlet Fever, Secret Garden, Small Pox, Turberculosis, typhus Comments closed
Crusoe and the American Work Ethic
A Pakistani student looks at Americans and notes their obsession with time. One can see that same obsession in Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Dickory Cronke, Max Weber, Pakistan, prosperity theology, Protestant work ethic, R. H. Tawney, Robinson Crusoe, Time, Work Comments closed
Marx & Engels on the Usefulness of Lit
Marx and Engels see literature as playing a role in class conflict, just not the major role.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Friedrich Engels, Honoré de Balzac, Karl Marx, Robinson Crusoe Comments closed
Plague Lit on Life Returning to Normal
Plague Lit teaches us how people behave DURING plagues. How about how they behave when life returns to normal? Camus may be best on this.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Albert Camus, COVID-19, Journal of the Plague Year, Last Man, Mary Shelley, plague Comments closed
“Clarissa” Taught the Age Empathy
A new book argues that epistolary novels, especially “Clarissa,” taught the 18th century empathy.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Clarissa, Denise Diderot, empathy, Enlightenment, Humphrey Clinker, Moll Flanders, Roxana, Samuel Richardson Comments closed
Post of the Year: Plagues in Literature
A survey of literature through the ages that has dealt with plagues.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Aeneid, Albert Camus, COVID-19, Emily St. John Mandel, Journal of the Plague Year, Katherine Anne Porter, Louise Erdrich, Margaret Atwood, Oedipus, Oryk and Crake, Pale Horse Pale Rider, plague, Sophocles, Stand, Station Eleven, Stephen King, Tracks, Virgil Comments closed
Reading Montaigne While Confined
In “Gentleman in Moscow,” the count turns to “Robinson Crusoe” to figure out how to survive. Reading Montaigne is a mixed bag.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Alexander Dumas, Amor Towles, Count of Monte Cristo, COVID-19, Gentleman in Moscow, Michel de Montaigne, Miguel de Cervantes, quarantine, Robinson Crusoe Comments closed