Introductory note on William Makepeace Thackeray (Volume 28, Harvard Classics)
Oct 22, 2021•3 min•Season 1Ep. 836
Swift was embarrassed by two women; Stella, whom he really loved, and Vanessa, with whom he had flirted and who had taken him seriously. Marriage to either one would break the heart of the other. (Volume 28, Harvard Classics)
Oct 22, 2021•13 min•Season 1Ep. 835
Introductory note on Marcus Tullius Cicero (Volume 9, Harvard Classics)
Oct 21, 2021•10 min•Season 1Ep. 834
Cicero agrees with Browning that old age is the golden time of life, when the fruits of a well-spent life are harvested. Cicero, the wise Roman, welcomed old age for its gifts: wisdom, sound judgment, and contentment. (Volume 9, Harvard Classics)
Oct 21, 2021•26 min•Season 1Ep. 833
Introductory note on Homer (Volume 22, Harvard Classics)
Oct 21, 2021•9 min•Season 1Ep. 832
The gods met in council and decreed that Odysseus be set adrift. Poseidon, God of the Sea, shattered the raft and Odysseus was cast ashore to encounter further adventures. (Volume 22, Harvard Classics)
Oct 21, 2021•27 min•Season 1Ep. 831
Weep if you must. It is far better than to repress your tears. But Leigh Hunt finds greater virtue in cheerfulness. Fanciful and graceful --- his writings exerted a wholesome influence on all nineteenth century journalism. (Volume 27, Harvard Classics) James Henry Leigh Hunt born Oct. 19, 1784.
Oct 19, 2021•23 min•Season 1Ep. 829
Introductory note on James Henry Leigh Hunt (Volume 27, Harvard Classics)
Oct 19, 2021•2 min•Season 1Ep. 830
Introductory note on Percy Bysshe Shelley (The Ridpath Library of Universal Literature)
Oct 19, 2021•8 min•Season 1Ep. 828
From the title of a recently popular novel, we know that one prominent fiction writer of to-day was inspired by the verses of Shelley. Many others have also felt the stirring vigor of his poetry. What is your reaction? (Volume 41, Harvard Classics)
Oct 19, 2021•13 min•Season 1Ep. 827
The religion of Thomas Browne - a liberal man in a most intolerant time - was not taken from either Rome or Geneva, but from his own reason. (Volume 3, Harvard Classics) Browne visited by Evelyn of "Evelyn Diary," Oct. 17, 1671.
Oct 17, 2021•33 min•Season 1Ep. 825
Introductory note on Thomas Browne (Volume 3, Harvard Classics)
Oct 17, 2021•2 min•Season 1Ep. 826
Introductory note on Hippocrates (Volume 38, Harvard Classics)
Oct 17, 2021•2 min•Season 1Ep. 824
Once physicians treated the sick with a mixture of medicine and charms. In those days medicine was regarded as a dark art like magic, and those practicing it formed guilds to protect themselves. (Volume 38, Harvard Classics)
Oct 17, 2021•6 min•Season 1Ep. 823
They are a people smooth and clean of body because of continually washing themselves --- they eat all their enemies whom they kill or capture." Amerigo Vespucci thus writes of the New World inhabitants. (Volume 43, Harvard Classics) Amerigo Vespucci returns from first American voyage, Oct. 15, 1498.
Oct 15, 2021•33 min•Season 1Ep. 821
Introductory note on Amerigo Vespucci (Volume 43, Harvard Classics)
Oct 15, 2021•55 sec•Season 1Ep. 822
Introductory note on Adam Smith (Volume 10, Harvard Classics)
Oct 15, 2021•3 min•Season 1Ep. 820
All colonies are founded to gain territory or treasure. Spain expected spice and gold from Columbus's expedition, but got no spice and little gold. Adam Smith tells the true motive of the colonizing Greeks, Romans, English, and Spaniards. (Volume 10, Harvard Classics)
Oct 15, 2021•23 min•Season 1Ep. 819
Introductory note on Marcus Aurelius (Volume 2, Harvard Classics)
Oct 13, 2021•2 min•Season 1Ep. 818
A man of virtue, although a pagan, Marcus Aurelius ruled with benevolence and wisdom. Cruel in persecution of Christians as lawbreakers, no trace of this sternness appears in his writings. (Volume 2, Harvard Classics)
Oct 13, 2021•23 min•Season 1Ep. 817
Introductory note on American Historical Documents (Volume 43, Harvard Classics)
Oct 13, 2021•2 min•Season 1Ep. 816
Historical documents, now priceless, were often used as wrapping paper. Rescued by chance was a letter of Columbus telling of his voyages - of the amazing bargains made with timid natives -- of Amazon women who fought like men and made marriage treaties with cannibals. (Volume 43, Harvard Classics) It's Columbus Day!
Oct 13, 2021•21 min•Season 1Ep. 815
Æneas, mythological founder of the Roman race, leaving Carthage and its lovely Queen Dido, was driven by a storm to the coast of Sicily. There the hospitality of King Acestes helped him to forget his relinquished love. (Volume 13, Harvard Classics)
Oct 11, 2021•23 min•Season 1Ep. 813
Introductory note on Virgil (Volume 13, Harvard Classics)
Oct 11, 2021•4 min•Season 1Ep. 814
The romance-stricken Don Quixote sees a fair youth seated by the side of a stream, "his feet like two crystals, his hands like snowflakes." The youth was a charming girl! (Volume 14, Harvard Classics) Cervantes aided in the capture of Tunis, Oct. 10, 1573.
Oct 10, 2021•30 min•Season 1Ep. 811
Introductory note on Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (Volume 14, Harvard Classics)
Oct 10, 2021•3 min•Season 1Ep. 812
Introductory note on Sarah Flower Adams (The Ridpath Library of Universal Literature)
Oct 09, 2021•2 min•Season 1Ep. 810
Do you know that many of your favorite hymns have echoed for hundreds of years through vast cathedrals, and resounded from the walls of Jericho during the Crusades? (Volume 45, Harvard Classics) Newman, author of "Lead, Kindly Light," baptized Oct. 9, 1845.
Oct 09, 2021•24 min•Season 1Ep. 809
Introductory note on Henry Fielding (The Ridpath Library of Universal Literature)
Oct 09, 2021•4 min•Season 1Ep. 808
Fielding wrote a lengthy story to burlesque a novel of Richardson. But the travesty overshot its mark. Instead of a mere parody, it became a masterpiece. (Volume 39, Harvard Classics) Henry Fielding died Oct. 8, 1764.
Oct 09, 2021•19 min•Season 1Ep. 807
