With hundreds of thousands of copies on the shelf, the Alice books seem to occupy a central place among the undisputed classics of the 19th century- and indeed of all English literature. It quickly becomes clear that this is no accident, but rather that these works of Nonsense have been carrying on a rich conversation with all other stories and…
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This mini-course is a novel way of introducing literary readers to the most formidable type of literature, lyric poetry, by focusing on those poems that C.S. Lewis admired the most. In addition to providing the literary tools to overcome the obstacles to reading lyric poetry, we will ask why Lewis admired Wordsworth, Herbert, and the metaphysical poets so much. Lewis's thought will also guide us on questions like: why is the sonnet the…
The period of British history from 1837 to 1901 was one in which both Britain and the world were altered remarkably. Changes abounded, in social customs, technology, political and military affairs, and the relations between person and person, citizen and government. Join Thomas Banks on June 30th-July 8th in this six-lecture exploration of the lives of five Victorian men and women who, in diverse ways,…
Individual Price: $120 (Non-Refundable) ***Family Rate for 3 or more students*** Price: $295 (Non-Refundable) The Harry Potter series rivals both The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings as the most popular fantasy series of all time. Behind all the hype, film franchises, amusement parks, cos-play, and controversy are stories deeply steeped in the same Literary Tradition as…
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Every era has to grapple with the eternal showdown of Plato vs. Aristotle. Plato is best-known for his transcendent Forms while Aristotle is forever aligned to the particulars of this world. But what are the universals? And what are the particulars? Is there any harmony of thought for the tutor and his pupil? This dialogue surrounding Platonic and Aristotelian philosophies…
CLASS DESCRIPTION In this class, we will read the whole of Dante's Comedy, with a particularly focus on how Dante used the "great books" of his own day to construct a deeply spiritual and psychological journey, from despair and loss and divisiveness to a happiness so bright and full the human mind cannot take it all in. We will see…
Individual Price: $99 (Non-Refundable) ***NEW Family Rate for 3 or more students*** Price: $250 (Non-Refundable) The Harry Potter series rivals both The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings as the most popular fantasy series of all time. Behind all the hype, film franchises, amusement parks, cos-play, and controversy are stories deeply steeped in the same Literary Tradition…
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A Mini-Class by Dr. Jason Baxter Dostoevsky once proclaimed: "Mankind can live without science, and even without bread. But it cannot live without beauty." But what is beauty for Dostoevsky? And why is it so hard for mankind in modernity to find it? This five-part summer series will read Dostoevsky's greatest novel, Brothers Karamazov, within the context of European modernity,…
In the 5th century A.D., the world of the Roman Empire was slowly dying. Its rulers were increasingly weak, literature and philosophy largely exhausted, the cities and provinces impoverished, the ancient religion and civic patriotism atrophied and enfeebled. Goths, Vandals and Huns spilled over the borders. Men all around fearfully anticipated the end of things. And in a middling town…
G.K. Chesterton was among the most popular English writers of the early Twentieth Century. As a novelist, poet, biographer, essayist, and Christian apologist he produced a large and grandly diverse body of writing that has in the past century inspired the admiration of George Orwell, Dorothy Sayers, C.S. Lewis, George Bernard Shaw, Franz Kafka, Theodore Roosevelt, Mahatma Gandhi, Agatha Christie, Kingsley…
When confronted with a very old work of literature, the modern reader struggles for several reasons. The biggest obstacle is that the shared literary, cultural, and imaginative traditions of the work have long since passed from our memories, and as a result, we simply do not understand the imaginative context (i.e. the imaginative language) the work is written in. Sadly,…
