On Reading Well

Prior, Karen Swallow. On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2018.

Liberty University professor Karen Swallow Prior discusses twelve literary works in light of Christian virtues portrayed in each. She utilizes other literature, theological and Biblical studies works, philosophy, and classics to reach her conclusions. The work is divided into sections for the cardinal virtues, theological virtues, and heavenly virtues.

Contents include:
Prudence: The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding
Temperance: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Justice: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Courage: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Faith: Silence by Shusaku Endo
Hope: The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Love: The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy
Chastity: Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Diligence: Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
Patience: Persuasion by Jane Austen
Humility: "Revelation" and "Everything that Rises Must Converge" by Flannery O'Connor

These essays would create great discussions in classes covering those works, particularly in Christian liberal arts universities. They could also serve as models for writing essays on literary works. This review is based on an advance review copy received from the publisher through NetGalley with the expectation of an unbiased review.

"Graveyard Sirens" by Guy de Maupassant

I recently was cataloging a book of short stories by Guy de Maupassant. I remember reading a couple of his short stories in high school--"The Necklace" and "A Piece of String." One of the stories I encountered was entitled "Graveyard Sirens." In this story, the storyteller is relating a visit to Montmartre. I just want to share a few of the author's words.

. . . Now, I have always liked cemeteries because they sadden and rest me; and I need that influence at times. Besides, many of my friends are laid to rest there, and I go to see them once in a while. . . .

I like graveyards because they are such immense, densely populated cities. Just think of all the bodies buried in that small space, of the countless generations of Parisians laid there forever, eternally entombed in the little vaults of their little graves marked by a cross or a stone, while the living -- fools that they are! -- take up so much room and make such a fuss.

Cemeteries have some monuments quite as interesting as those to be seen in the museums. . . .

I walked slowly along the alleys of graves where neighbors no longer visit, no longer sleep togehter, nor read the papers. I began reading the epitaphs. There is nothing more amusing in the world. Labiche and Meilhac have never made me laugh as much as some of these tombstone inscriptions. I tell you these crosses and marble slaves on which the relatives of the dead have poured out their regrets and their wishes for the happiness of the departed, their hopes of reunion -- the hypocrites! -- make better reading than Balzac's funniest tales! But waht I love in Montmartre are the abandoned plots filled with yewtrees and cypress, the resting-place of those departed long ago. However, the green trees nourished by the bodies will soon be felled to make room for those that have recently passed away, whose graves will be there, under little marble slabs. . . .

How many of us have had similar stories in our graveyard visits? I know that I've encountered some humorous epitaphs and curious wordings on markers. Many of us have similar feelings about the restfulness of cemeteries. The full collection of short stories is available at Google Books. A Google search for the short story and author will bring up this result for you. The story begins on page 311 of the 10-volume-in-1 edition published in 1903 by Walter J. Black.

By the way, there is also an interesting story entitled "The Will" on pages 562-565.

Source: "Graveyard Sirens, in The Complete Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant. Ten volumes in one. New York: Walter J. Black, 1903, pp. 311-316.

Herman Melville

Ever wonder why Herman Melville didn't write more books? It's because Moby Dick was such a failure in its own day. I found this to be a very interesting article. It gives a little of his family background.

From "The Tomb of His Ancestors"

As I was reclassifying some Rudyard Kipling books today, I found a short story entitled "The Tomb of His Ancestors" which described a visit to a grave in India:

They began the steep climb a little after noon, but it was near sunset ere they reached the stone platform clinging to teh side of a rifted, jungle-covered hill, where Jan Chinn the First was laid, as he had desired, that he might overlook his people. All India is full of neglected graves that date from the beginning of the eighteenth century--tombs of forgotten colonels of corps long since disbanded; mates of East Indiamen who went on shooting expeditions and never came back; factors, agents, writers, and ensigns of the Honourable the East India Company by hundreds and thousands and tens of thousands. English folk forget quickly, but natives have long memories, and if a man has done good in his life it is remembered after his death. The weathered marble four-square tomb of Jan Chinn was hung about with wild flowers and nuts, packets of wax and honey, bottles of native spirits, and infamous cigars, with buffalo horns and plumes of dried grass. At one end was a rude clay image of a white man, in the old-fashioned top-hat, riding on a bloated tiger.

Bukta salamed reverently as they approached. Chinn bared his head and began to pick out the blurred inscription. So far as he could read it ran thus--word for word, and letter for letter:

To the Memory of JOHN CHINN, Esq.

Late Collector of . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . ithout Bloodshed or . . . error of Authority

Employ . only . . eans of Conciliat . . . and Confiden .

accomplished the . . . tire Subjection . . .

a Lawless and Predatory Peopl . . .

. . . . taching them to . . . . ish Government

by a Conquest over . . . . Minds

The most perma . . . and rational Mode of Domini .

. . Governor General and Counc . . . engal

have ordered thi . . . . . . . erected

. . . arted this Life Aug. 19, 184 . . Ag . . .

On the other side of the grave were ancient verses, also very worn. As much as Chinn could decipher said:

the savage band

Forsook their Haunts and b . , . is Command

. . . . mended . . rals chick a . , st for
spoil

And . s . ing Hamlets prove his gene . . . . toil

Humanit . . . survey . . . . . . ights restore . .

A Nation . . ield . . subdued without a Sword.

For some little time he leaned on the tomb thinking of this dead man of his own blood, and of the house in Devonshire; then, nodding to the plains: "Yes; it's a big work--all of it-- even my little share. He must have been worth knowing. . . . Bukta, where are my people?"

"Not here, Sahib. No man comes here except in full sun. They wait above. Let us climb and see."

I found this to be a very interesting section of the story. They had the same problems with cemeteries being allowed to deteriorate. I loved the observation that was made that the ancestor was "worth knowing." Don't all of us as genealogists feel that our ancestors are that way?

Source: Kipling, Rudyard. "The Tomb of His Ancestors" in The Day's Work. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1911. The quote is from pp. 135-137. The entire short story is on pp. 109-153.